Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting

The film is made possible by generous support from Executive Producers Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation and San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, and Co-Executive Producers Jessica and Steve Sarowitz.

Imagining the Indian is Produced by the Ciesla Foundation, Co-Directed and Co-Produced by Aviva Kempner and Ben West (Cheyenne), and Co-Produced by Kevin Blackistone, Yancey Burns, and Sam Bardley.  Interviewees include activist Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne/Hodulgee Muscogee), Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), Olympic gold-medalist Billy Mills (Oglala Lakota), Founding Director of the National Museum of the American Indian W. Richard West Jr. (Southern Cheyenne), USA Today columnist Christine Brennan, Under Secretary for Museums and Culture at the Smithsonian, Kevin Gover (Pawnee), Joy Harjo, the 23^rd Poet Laureate of the U.S. (Mvskoke), historian Phil Deloria (Dakota), Washington Commanders defensive legend Charles Mann, Congressman Jamie Raskin, broadcaster Bob Costas, The Star-Ledger sports columnist Jerry Izenberg, and NAACP President Derrick Johnson, among many others.

Based in Washington, D.C., Kempner, a director-writer-producer dynamo, boasts a resume of critically acclaimed and award-winning documentaries, including Rosenwald; Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, The Spy Behind Home Plate, and Peabody winner The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg.  Her films have received top honors from The National Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Circle, the Broadcast Film Critics Association and CINE Golden Eagle and Peabody Awards.  Kempner is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is an avid voting rights advocate for the District of Columbia. Kemper also co-wrote and is co-producing, with Ben West, a dramatic script about Navajo activist Larry Casuse.